Page 51 of Night Fall
He took in her face, the fight in her eyes, the softness of her cheeks, the decadence of her mouth, and found his thumb rubbing along its softness. Her mouth opened for him, and he sighed.
“Will you still want me when you know what happened?”
He didn't realize he’d spoken aloud until she answered, “Nothing could ever stop me from wanting you. I won’t look at you differently, Erik. I promise you.”
He tilted her head and kissed her forehead because he couldn’t muster the courage to look her in the eye. “Constance is a blood witch.”
“Impossible,” she hissed. “I killed them all.”
“She is one. I’m not sure if she was born one, found a grimoire, or obtained their spells and rituals some other way, but she is a blood witch. Her goal is children. She’s obsessed with having a family, with having immortal children who are strong and powerful.”
Mya drew back. “Erik, did you—”
“No!” he shouted, the simple thought of touching anyone other than Mya, disgusting to him. “No, I never touched her. She tried to get me to father a child with her, but I could not. I couldn’t even get hard for her, so she tried to break our mate bond.”
Mya’s mouth dropped open, frozen, speechless.
“She couldn’t because I’d already met you. I was already in love with you, and that emotion was too strong for the spell to work, so she took delight in torturing me instead. She…”
He forced another deep breath through his body. It was easier to think the thoughts himself than say them to her, to possibly face her judgment. He didn’t want her to see how weak he had been in those moments. But Mya didn’t speak or push for more. She waited patiently for him, and that gave him the courage to continue.
“She castrated me,” he said in a barely audible whisper. “Multiple times.”
Erik couldn’t look at her, embarrassed by the trauma he’d endured. “I don’t know if it’s because your blood was in my system for so long or because of the paralysis spell, but I received the ability to adapt to wounds and pain. I heal faster, and once an injury has happened to my body, it takes longer for the same wound to manifest again. One strike of a sword took off my cock or my arm or my foot. In a week it would grow back. She would go to strike me again, but it would take two, three, four times before she could get through the bone, and instead of it taking a week to grow back it would take three days, two, a few hours at most.”
“When that stopped working, she tried other things—fire, branding, sodomy. I was a toy for her to play with, and later an experiment. She drained me of my blood and kept me in a barely alive state while she tried to manifest my ability in her other vampires, but it never worked. When the cave system began to collapse and I escaped, she cursed me with the inability to retain the nutrients I need from blood to heal. That’s why you found me the way you did. Your blood cured me and—”
He felt a tremor. At first, Erik thought that he was the one trembling, so he pushed on and on. He rushed through his story as to not get lost in it, so he could be honest and open with Mya, to give her the things she’d asked to know. If he said all the horrible things just this once, perhaps he’d never have to say them again, never have think of them again. Perhaps he could lock those memories in the past with so many other things he wished he could be rid of.
But he was not the one trembling. Mya was.
Erik marveled at the expression on her face. The rage and anger he expected was in her eyes, but there was so much more in them too. For a moment, he was scared she would pity him, that she would see him as less of a man, a coward, not the man she knew or had looked up to all those years ago. But her green orbs showed empathy, compassion, and a type of misery that matched the deepest depths of his soul.
“I’m sorry,” she whimpered. “I’m so sorry, Erik. I’m so sorry.”
She hugged him, squeezed him, molded her body to his own as if she could hold him back from all the demons that had dug their claws into him, and in that moment he wished she could. She cried for him, wailed and sobbed and screamed for the pain he’d experienced, and he held her just as tightly. In every sound, expression, and movement she broke another barrier in his mind and soul.
Erik clung to her. He let her take his turmoil, his darkness, and expunge it in a way he did not know how to do. He let her tears be the gateway to his own, and for the first time he realized that they did not only need to heal the trauma that had happened between them, but the trauma that was present in themselves as well.
EIGHTEEN
They talked throughout the night, wanting to reconnect, to fill in the spaces between the people they were three hundred years ago and who they were today.
Erik felt incredibly lucky and thankful to be by Mya’s side again. She’d overwhelmed him with not only her care now, but the things she’d done to keep his memory alive over the centuries, not only emotionally, but logically and financially. Mya had worked with her family and Lily to forge the documentation that had burned in his house. By doing so, Mya had gained access to his savings and the insurance policy. She’d filed a claim and received the payment for his home, and allocated the money into a mirage of accounts, including high yield savings accounts, certificates of deposits, bonds and stocks. She’d even allocated him a 401K through her family’s company when it was first established. The result of her efforts made him one of the wealthiest men in the world. If he wanted to buy an island, even build and monopolize one, he could and would still have money to spare. She’d also found the name of the family member he’d harmed when his blood rage was out of control and had continued to pay the man’s descendants.
Mya had done anything and everything to honor him. That was her love for him, and Erik felt guilty for ever questioning it. He’d always believed he didn’t deserve her, that she could and should do better, but she didn’t want anything else but him. It was time he accepted and respected that. One conversation would not resolve the years of heartache they’d been through, but he was grateful for the chance to try again with her.
As the night went on, they moved to her bedroom where they could lie in one another’s arms, at some point his eyes closed, and he was surprised to see the sun when he opened them again. It had been years since he’d last slept, and he knew it had only been possible because of her, because of the peace she gave his soul.
Her phone vibrated again, and she grumbled as she rolled over to answer it. She read the message and sighed. “It’s my brother. He wants us to come over. Are you ready to see him?”
Greg had been Erik’s closest friend, someone he trusted and enjoyed mentoring, but he was also Mya’s older brother, and Erik had hurt her. He wasn’t sure how Greg would react to him, whether it would be with open arms, a stoic expression, or a punch to his jaw. But regardless of what might happen, Erik wanted to see him, to begin mending that bridge as well, so he nodded.
They dressed and moved downstairs, but as Mya went to open the door, Erik pulled her behind him. Stepping forward, he grasped the doorknob in his hand and flung the door open, where they were greeted by twenty-five men on her property, seven cars, and eight more driving up the road.
Mya pulled out her knife, and Erik saw pure fury and murder in her eyes.
“No, love,” he said softly, “You’ve fought more than enough battles for me. Let me fight this one for you.”
